Home Grown Wisconsin

Home Grown Wisconsin was a cooperative, multi-farm food marketing enterprise founded in 1996 in south Central Wisconsin. This co-op sold fresh produce to upscale restaurants and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) customers for more than 10 years. Its goal was to expand the market for fresh, local, organic produce through the distribution of high quality products that conveyed the variety and value of Wisconsin’s harvest. In 2009, after being significantly impacted by floods, an economic downturn and mounting overhead costs, the cooperative closed its business operations. The story behind this business is potentially useful for other farms that wish to market produce cooperatively.

Current funding support provided by United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Multistate project, NC-1198, “Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle: Value Chain Design, Policy Approaches, and Environmental and Social Impacts” (2012 -2017).